A complete power plant, including multiple turbines of various types and associated equipment, represents a very complicated system, and the operation of various components affect each other, so that a change in the operating mode of one component of the system affects the operation of other components, with varying results. In order to operate at maximum efficiency, each of the components must be "tuned" in its operational characteristics, so that the system, as a whole, operates with maximum cost efficiency in terms of the cost per hour of running the power plant at a given demand load, and the cost of excess electrical power which must be purchased from an outside source in order to make up the required total power demand. Thus, complexities have presented severe difficulties in the design and the operation of such power plants, and also represent complications in retrofitting process/powerhouse equipment or extension of an existing power plant. It has been customary to make educated guesses at the approximate operating characteristics of the various components during real time operation of the system as a whole, and to make minor adjustment in some of the operational characteristics of some of the components, as they are running, to see if an increasing cost efficiency results. This is a difficult process, however, since it is time consuming and requires highly skilled personnel in order to make the educated guesses and to determined what characteristics of what components to alter. Moreover, the results of such alterations are not known until after the passage of time, during which unintended side effects may occur.
Frequently, the alteration of operating characteristics of one or more components has unforeseen results, with the overall effect that although efficiency of one portion of the system is improved, the overall efficiency of the system deteriorates. Moreover, the resulting inefficiency may not be realized or noticed, until some later time, at which in-plant measurements are taken, so that the real time operation of the plant at lower than peak efficiency represents an economic loss in the operation of the equipment.
The optimization of the system is a continuous process, because the operating characteristics of the various components change with time, and it is necessary from time to time to take one or more components out of service, without interrupting operation of the power plant, for routine maintenance, etc.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for simulating the individual components and the overall system of a power plant, and for optimizing the entire system, so that a given set of operational parameters can be evaluated, whereby optimum operating characteristics may be determined without requiring operation of the power plant at a less than optimum cost efficiency. It is also desirable to provide means for assuring the identification of a global best optimum solution instead of merely a "local solution", inferior to the global optimum.